MinneAsianStories Podcast

"Adoptee liberation is also connected to our shared liberation"

For our final episode of the MinneAsianStories Podcast: Season 2, we continue our look at adoptee justice organizing in Minnesota. Our host Julia Gay chats with community organizer and founding board member of CAAL Margie Jo Eun Joo Andreason about how transracial and transnational adoptees in Minnesota are creating adoptee centered spaces for processing, healing and joy. Margie reflects on her work with the Network of Politicized Adoptees (NPA), an all-volunteer group of transracial adoptees working at the intersection of social justice and adoptee rights. Listen in on how Margie found her way to adoptee justice organizing and connects her work to the broader movement for shared liberation. You can learn more about the Network of Politicized Adoptees at npa-mn.org [//npa-mn.org]. And you can find some incredible photos from past and recent gatherings with NPA and a full transcript of this episode at calmn.org/podcast/margie [//calmn.org/podcast/margie].

"Our healing is rooted in decolonizing ourselves"

For our final two episodes of the MinneAsianStories Podcast: Season 2, we're exploring how Asian Minnesotan transnational adoptees have been shifting the dominant narrative around adoption to center adoptee voices and experiences. Our MinneAsianStories Correspondent Hannah Kinzer chats with educator, writer, and DEI consultant Dr. SooJin Pate about the decolonizing process of reclaiming one's history, narrative and story as a transracial and transnational adoptee. SooJin reveals how policy and colonial power have fueled transnational adoption and made Minnesota the "Land of 10,000 Adoptees." She shares her reflections on adoption and how adoption is woven into Asian Americans movements and communities in Minnesota. Check out SooJin's podcasts, the Antiracist Parenting Podcast [https://antiracistparentingpodcast.com/] and Decolonize Yourself [https://open.spotify.com/show/63QVfDiTLMWEBla1eoh0tL], and book From Orphan to Adoptee: US Empire and Genealogies of Korean Adoption [https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/from-orphan-to-adoptee]. Visit caalmn.org/podcast [//www.caalmn.org/podcast] for a full archive of all of our previous episodes.

"We've always had queer Hmong artists as a part of SOY"

This week on the MinneAsianStories Podcast: Season 2, we continue our celebration of Pride Month with our look at Shades of Yellow (SOY), the first Hmong LGBTQ+ organization. Our host Julia Gay chats with Xay Yang, Queer Justice Director and Mental Health Therapist at Transforming Generations and former SOY participant and volunteer. Xay shares her fondest memories from her time working with SOY. From the Hmong Pride flag designed by Ka Oskar Ly to a painting of a Hmong man wearing a rainbow patterned traditional Hmong hat, Xay reflects on how art was an integral tool for SOY's organizing and a creative pathway for redefining the intersections of queer and Asian identities. S U N A H's Song: (3) S U N A H - Unique - YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oJ2XqmIrmo] Links to Transforming Generations' website and events: * Website: www.transforminggenerations.org [http://www.transforminggenerations.org/] * Drag Tale Times (July 9 and Aug 13) * June's DTT: Drag Tale Times ft. Jasmine D. Cassadine | Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/events/5120529334707878] * Pride Events: Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=379088627581814&set=a.327401162750561] * Zaj Sawv Leadership Retreat - August 19-21, 2022, more info to come later Other organizations with Hmong LGBTQ+ programming across the US: Home - Freedom, Inc. (freedom-inc.org) [https://freedom-inc.org/] Hmong American Women’s Association – HAWA’s mission is to advocate for social justice within the Hmong and Southeast Asian community through collective and inclusive action. (hawamke.org) [https://www.hawamke.org/] Hmoob | La Crosse | Cia Siab, Inc. (ciasiabinc.org) [https://www.ciasiabinc.org/] Hmong Queer Suab | Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/Hmong-Queer-Suab-343657115988953]

“We were finally able to celebrate that part of ourselves”

Happy Pride Month! As we transition from Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to Pride Month this June, we are thrilled to highlight the significant work and contributions of queer Asian Minnesotan organizers in our community. This week on the MinneAsianStories Podcast: Season 2, our host Julia Gay chats with Ka Oskar Ly, multidisciplinary artist and cultural producer and the former Interim Executive Director of Shades of Yellow (SOY), the first ever Hmong LGBTQ non-profit organization. Ka shares how SOY got started in 2003 as an informal social and safe space reaching Hmong, and later pan-Asian, LGBTQ communities locally and globally. Listen in as Ka reflects on the influential role SOY played in empowering a new generation of queer Asian leaders in our community.  You can find photos of the colorful Hmong pride flag Ka designed on our website at www.caalmn.org/podcast/ka [//www.caalmn.org/podcast/ka].

"How do you get men to support your organization?... You don't"

This week on the MinneAsianStories Podcast: Season 2, our host Julia Gay chats with Gaoly Yang, the former Executive Director of the Women’s Association of Hmong and Lao (WAHL), the first Hmong and Lao women's organization in Minnesota. Gaoly reflects on her early days of gender-based organizing and what inspired her to help found the first ever Hmong and Lao women's organization in Minnesota, in spite of backlash from men in her community. Visit www.caalmn.org/podcast [//www.caalmn.org/podcast] for more stories from our Asian Minnesotan community.